Thiago calls a meeting to tell Barcelona he's off to Manchester United

Thiago to Manchester United looks like it's actually going to happen, more and more by the day. The Catalan press have started to get insulting about Manchester United, which is a good sign that the Barcelona player will be going there and elsewhere there are reports that's it's not just football he's leaving for, but money.

AS today claim that David Moyes would make him one of Manchester United's best paid players, and if he does leave then that's sure to be an angle they cover more in Spain. The Spanish media certainly won't be happy if he leaves and that's showing already. The arrogance developed, perhaps fairly through success, means that there's shock when a top player moves from La Liga to the Premier League. It will be taken as some sort of insult and responded to as such, we'll cover that in more detail separately.

AS claim that Thiago has called a meeting with Barcelona to tell them he's leaving and going to Manchester United to get more minutes. It does give the Catalan club one last chance to convince him to stay but it's been repeated several times in Spain that Tito Vilanova will give Thiago no assurances, because he can't given the midfielders he has at his disposal. It would take an injury or two for Thiago to play a leading role for Barcelona next season and that's simply the way things are.

The newspaper say that Thiago's father Mazinho, also his agent, returned to Barcelona on Friday with an irresistible offer from Manchester United under his arm, and that this offer, coupled with Thiago's World Cup dream has left one simple result, Manchester United will pay his buy-out clause and he'll be off to Old Trafford.

They say Thiago's mind is made up but that Barcelona club president Sandro Rosell has been trying to form a new strategy to get him to reconsider, which they don't think is likely and state that Thiago is being stubborn about the situation. AS claim, quite obviously, that the next few days will be crucial in the saga but that every day he seems to be moving further away from Barcelona.

On the same page they say the midfielder was Manchester United's second choice and they really wanted Cesc Fabregas but that Cesc's comments from Brazil about not wanting to move anywhere have deterred them from that and the Manchester club haven't thought twice about going for the Thiago transfer, because he's such a bargain. The Fabregas claim could be another dose of sour grapes.